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JEAN LUC-GODARD’S
A WOMAN IS A WOMAN
ANNA KARINA, JEAN-PAUL BELMONDO, AND JEAN-CLAUDE BRIALY
STAR IN GODARD’S COLOR AND SCOPE HOMAGE TO THE HOLLYWOOD MUSICAL, WITH MUSIC BY MICHEL LEGRAND
U.S. PREMIERE OF NEW 4K RESTORATION,
FEBRUARY 7-20 AT FILM FORUM
A WOMAN IS A WOMAN, writer/director Jean-Luc Godard’s “subversive” color and Scope tribute to the Hollywood musical comedy, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Claude Brialy, and the director’s then-wife and muse Anna Karina, will run at Film Forum from Friday, February 7 to Thursday, February 20, in a new 4K restoration being shown for the first time in the United States.
“I want to be in a musical with Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly… choreographed by Bob Fosse!” declares Karina, and she almost gets her wish in this first color, Scope, and partly studio-shot film by her then-husband, the second (following LE PETIT SOLDAT) of their seven and a half collaborations. Karina’s Angela — an afternoon dancer in the sleazy Zodiac Club – yearns for motherhood, but live-in boyfriend Brialy “isn’t ready yet,” while hanger-on Belmondo is more than happy to oblige.
“Festooned with enough eccentric musical moments to satisfy the most avant of gardists: a Charles Aznavour song almost arbitrarily rocketing on and off the soundtrack, Karina’s stripping ditties, Michel Legrand’s pre-UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG score thundering into split-second breaks in dialogue. Plus cinematic in-jokes galore: Belmondo not wanting to miss BREATHLESS on TV, a straight-to-the-camera nod to Burt Lancaster in VERA CRUZ, Jeanne Moreau in a bar being asked how JULES AND JIM is coming along, Truffaut star Marie Dubois miming the title SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, as a machine gun rat-tat-tats on the track. Plus plenty of anarchic humor: Brialy’s bicycle ride through the apartment, a silent bedtime argument played out via book jacket titles, the backstage quick changes effected by cheekily obvious trick photography, men in the street-shot vérité style-asked at random if they’d like to father Karina’s child, with 1961 Paris stunningly photographed by New Wave master Raoul Coutard (BREATHLESS, JULES AND JIM, etc, etc.).
A jeu d’esprit of the New Wave that won a jury prize from the Berlin Film Festival for its “originality, youth, audacity and impertinence,” while the enchanting Karina (in her first major role) was named Best Actress.”
– Rialto Pictures notes
“I want to be in a musical with Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly… choreographed by Bob Fosse!” declares Karina, and she almost gets her wish in this first color, Scope, and partly studio-shot film by her then-husband, the second (following LE PETIT SOLDAT) of their seven and a half collaborations. Karina’s Angela — an afternoon dancer in the sleazy Zodiac Club – yearns for motherhood, but live-in boyfriend Brialy “isn’t ready yet,” while hanger-on Belmondo is more than happy to oblige.
“Festooned with enough eccentric musical moments to satisfy the most avant of gardists: a Charles Aznavour song almost arbitrarily rocketing on and off the soundtrack, Karina’s stripping ditties, Michel Legrand’s pre-UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG score thundering into split-second breaks in dialogue. Plus cinematic in-jokes galore: Belmondo not wanting to miss BREATHLESS on TV, a straight-to-the-camera nod to Burt Lancaster in VERA CRUZ, Jeanne Moreau in a bar being asked how JULES AND JIM is coming along, Truffaut star Marie Dubois miming the title SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, as a machine gun rat-tat-tats on the track. Plus plenty of anarchic humor: Brialy’s bicycle ride through the apartment, a silent bedtime argument played out via book jacket titles, the backstage quick changes effected by cheekily obvious trick photography, men in the street-shot vérité style-asked at random if they’d like to father Karina’s child, with 1961 Paris stunningly photographed by New Wave master Raoul Coutard (BREATHLESS, JULES AND JIM, etc, etc.).
A jeu d’esprit of the New Wave that won a jury prize from the Berlin Film Festival for its “originality, youth, audacity and impertinence,” while the enchanting Karina (in her first major role) was named Best Actress.”
– Rialto Pictures notes
“If all Jean-Luc Godard needed to make BREATHLESS was a girl, a guy, and a gun, then all he needed to create the CinemaScopic romantic comedy A WOMAN IS A WOMAN was a love triangle between Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy. Both an embrace and a rejection of the trappings of the American musical comedy, it’s one of Godard’s chicest and most accessible movies.”
— Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
“The grande folie of Godard's early career."
— J. Hoberman
"An intoxicating expression of that devotion, and of the idea, more liberating then than now, that movie love was the stuff that movies could be made of."
— A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"DELIRIOUSLY KOOKY!"
— Time Out New York
Written and Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Starring Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Claude Brialy
Cinematography by Raoul Coutard
Music by Michel Legrand
France | 1961 | In French with English subtitles
Approx. 84 min | 4K DCP Restoration
A Rialto Pictures Release
Restored by Studiocanal, with the support of the CNC.
Scanned in 4K from the original 35mm negatives by Hiventy.
Presented with support from The George Fasel Memorial Fund for Classic French Cinema
Film Forum’s repertory calendar is programmed by
Bruce Goldstein, Repertory Artistic Director
— Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
“The grande folie of Godard's early career."
— J. Hoberman
"An intoxicating expression of that devotion, and of the idea, more liberating then than now, that movie love was the stuff that movies could be made of."
— A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"DELIRIOUSLY KOOKY!"
— Time Out New York
Written and Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Starring Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Claude Brialy
Cinematography by Raoul Coutard
Music by Michel Legrand
France | 1961 | In French with English subtitles
Approx. 84 min | 4K DCP Restoration
A Rialto Pictures Release
Restored by Studiocanal, with the support of the CNC.
Scanned in 4K from the original 35mm negatives by Hiventy.
Presented with support from The George Fasel Memorial Fund for Classic French Cinema
Film Forum’s repertory calendar is programmed by
Bruce Goldstein, Repertory Artistic Director
